Five Hymns That Make Me Cry

I love hymns. The old ones that are full of doctrine and truth. There is something about “the oldies of the faith” that can comfort, encourage, and heal in ways that the newer worship music simply doesn’t touch me. But there are a few hymns that I tend to avoid, though I love the message that they teach. I avoid these hymns because they can pull up the tears faster than anything I know, and I hate to cry in public. At home, in my private worship, God gets to hear these songs quite a lot — I don’t think He minds the tears. But at church? No way am I singing these at church.

1. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. This was the favorite hymn of a friend who committed suicide. She had a huge hanging of the chorus hanging in her entry way. Whenever I hear this hymn, I think of her and her untimely death. She was a wonderful woman who opened the world of literature and theatre to me. I remember the first play she took me to, and I have books from her library that I treasure to this day. Like me, she was a person who was rejected by many of those around her because she didn’t “fit in.” Her suicide was an appalling tragedy that affected me deeply — I was only 18.
2. In the Garden. Mostly, this one brings me to tears because it’s been sung at every funeral I’ve been to in the last fifteen years — and most of those were dear family members or friends. But sometimes it’s the vocalist’s unbelievable torture of the melody line. I don’t know what it is about this song that makes vocalists want to turn on their vibrato and stick in a bunch of trills and mordants and stuff, but holy cow, this song is tortured something terrible.
3. It Is Well With My Soul. The third verse gets me every time: “My sin … not in part, but the whole — is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more!” I’ve been forgiven much, and it just overwhelms my heart when I sing that song. And I know the story behind the hymn, and I cannot comprehend how Horatio Spafford was able to pen these words in the face of the tragedy that he and his wife suffered. I do not know whether I would be strong enough to praise Him under similar circumstances. (I would want to, but I know just how weak I am in that regard.)
4. Amazing Love. Again, it’s that one verse: “No condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head, and robed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own.” The freedom from guilt and shame that this assurance gives is incredible. NO condemnation. Thanks to Christ, I have nothing to fear when I face God. I can approach Him boldly, because He sees me through the redemptive work of His Son, and I am, therefore, righteous in His sight.
5. What a Friend We Have in Jesus. I was an unpopular kid whom people would befriend, use, abuse, and dump. Or use as a punching bag and object of ridicule. Or just ignore completely. Friends? I had very few. I knew a lot of people, but few of them were close. (Which, for those who know me in these later years, is why I have seriously impaired social skills and a profound distrust of people in general.) Anyway, there’s one verse of this hymn that says “Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He’ll take and shield you; thou wilt find a solace there.”  That verse brings back not only my difficult, lonely childhood and adolescence, but also the desertion that I suffered in my divorce. But that verse also reminds me of the consolation that I can still turn to one Friend and not be rejected, abused, or ignored. And that knowledge taps into some pretty deep emotional tracks.

I may not want to sing these hymns publicly, but they definitely have a place in my heart, and they speak very deeply to my soul.

Tags: Christianity, emotion, hymns, Religion